We Still Kill the Old Way
by LemonStar
Summary: AU ..Klaus/Caroline.. The body falls between them with a heavy thud and Klaus smiles, reaching forward, burying his hands in her golden hair and pulling her close. Her mouth is stained in red and she smiles when he licks at her lips.
1. Chapter 1

…

"Who is this?" Elena asks as Stefan hands her one of his old books – leather and musty – opened already to one of the fragile yellowed pages.

"Klaus," he answers, sitting down next to her and she feels her heart stop as she stares down at the printed sketch of the original vampire. She stares at it for a moment. "There are no pictures of him. There wasn't photography when he was made and he's a bit of a recluse. This is the only known drawing of him and we don't even know if it's right."

"He's young," she feels the need to say and they're the only words that she can form. "Younger than I imagined him to be."

"He's only in his twenties… plus a thousand," Stefan rubs his hands on his jean-clad thighs and then taking the book gently from her hands, he flips to another page. He lays the book once again across her lap and she finds herself looking at another sketch. "And this is Caroline," he says.

"Caroline," she tests the name on her tongue and stares down at the aged sketch of a beautiful young girl, no older than she is now.

"When you hear the story of Romeo and Juliet, you like to imagine that after they killed themselves, they were reunited and are spending an eternity together," he says to her.

"I've never really thought about it before but… yes, it sounds nice," she smiles a little.

Stefan doesn't return the gesture. Instead, he stares at her with the utmost solemnity, his jaw a bit tight, the muscles in his face twitching. "Imagine Romeo and Juliet, spending an eternity together as murderous lunatics."

There is a lump in her throat she tries to swallow down and her fingers tighten around the sides of the open book, her knuckles almost white. She tries not to let on just how frightened she is.

"They've been together for nearly three hundred years," Stefan continues. "You hear stories. Rumors. Legends. Who knows what's real? One thing that is constant in every single one is-"

"They are _madly_ in love," Damon enters the room, an empty glass in his hand, his eyes flashing.

Elena glances at him and then at Stefan before back down to the sketch. Stefan leans in to look as well, studying Caroline's sketch.

"The kind of love they share, it's the most dangerous, Elena. They will do _anything_ for each other," Stefan says. "That humanity switch I told you about?" He pauses and she nods, remembering. "They turned theirs off long ago. They don't feel anything except… what Damon said. They love each other and will kill anyone who threatens harm to one or the other. She was seventeen when she turned and he found her and there was something about her that he liked. He took her and trained her and they fell in love and have been together ever since."

"According to some stories, she's crazier than he is," Damon smirks, pouring himself another drink. He walks over to the couch and takes the book from Elena's lap, looking at Caroline's sketch. "You thought Katherine was bad?" He asks and sits down in the chair across from them.

"Damon's right," Stefan rubs the back of his neck.

"I bet it just killed you to admit that," Damon raises his eyebrows from over the top of his glass.

"Klaus is an original. He's nearly invincible and as long as Caroline's with him, she is, too," Stefan says, ignoring Damon's comment. "He will never let anything happen to her."

"So that's why we need to get to her and do something to her," Damon pipes in again.

Elena looks at him, her mouth falling open. "You _want_ to get to Caroline and hurt her? You just got finished telling me how insane she and Klaus are for one another."

"Exactly," Damon nods, staring right at her. "We kill his little girlfriend and he becomes even more insane and drops his guard and makes it easier to get to him. He'll come to us and he'll be way too emotional."

"Love is a vampire's greatest weakness," Stefan says just soft enough for her to hear.

Elena tries to swallow the dryness in her throat again but to not avail. Her stomach is in knots and her heart is pounding so quickly in her chest, it nearly begins to make her rib plate hurt. "This is one of those plans where a thousand things can go wrong," she tells both brothers.

"We'll have a few back-ups," Damon immediately assures her but it does nothing to calm her nerves.

She turns her head and looks at Stefan.

He gives her a small smile and rubs a hand on her thigh. "Klaus knows about you and he's coming. We'll figure it out before then."

She nods and they both look back towards Damon when he makes a "Huh" sound.

The book is now across his lap. "Caroline is a younger vampire than Klaus. Maybe there's an actual picture of her."

Stefan shakes his head. "I doubt it. If he isolates himself, she probably does, too."

"An eternal seventeen-year-old who is a recluse? Not likely," Damon nearly snorts. "She goes out. Someone has had to have seen her in all of this time."

"Who do we know that would have seen her?" Stefan asks and Damon sighs with impatience, giving his brother a minute to catch up.

"Katherine," Elena is the one to figure it out first.

"Ding, ding, ding!" Damon slams the book shut and stands up. "As much as I hate to admit it, we might be able to use her help with this."

Stefan is ready to protest but Elena covers his hand with hers and gives it a squeeze. They look at one another and she does her best to smile though it doesn't reach her eyes.

"The more plans we have, the better," she tells him. "I want to be ready when Klaus and Caroline come to town."

…

* * *

><p><em>AN: just a short introduction chapter to a different sort of Klaus/Caroline than what I've written. I hope you like it!_

_Please, please, please comment if you read. I would love to hear from you! I know this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but I hope some of you like it. Thank you!_


	2. Chapter 2

…

Caroline Forbes learned long ago that it is impossible to sneak up on him but she still likes to try.

He is still in bed, asleep, laying on his stomach and hugging the pillow that is hers to his face. She lingers in the doorway for a moment, admiring the way the sun streams through the unguarded windows, streaking rays across his bare back. The nail marks from the night before that she had scratched down his back are all healed.

She smiles as she watches him, forgetting for a moment her plan of pouncing on him. She likes to watch him sleep but rarely gets to do it. He is almost always awake before her and if he isn't, the instant he feels his eyes on her, his are open, watching her in return.

It is cold that morning – she can see fat snow flakes falling heavily from the grey sky through the large windows. They have been here – at their cabin – right on Lake Saskatchewan in northern Canada – for almost a year now but they will be leaving soon. Klaus has brought her here for a bit of a getaway – just the two of them – but she knows that he is ready to move on.

They will be heading south in a couple of days – to Virginia. She tries not to think about what will happen once they get there. For as long as she has known him and been with him, it has been a constant thought in the back of his head. Virginia. Moonstone. Doppelganger. All of it.

She sometimes gets really sick of hearing about it.

She moves towards the bed, silently, hunting her prey, but the instant she brings her knee onto the mattress, Klaus is up and grabs her, flipping her over and pinning her on her back. She bubbles with laughter and he grins, holding her arms above her head, trapping them to the mattress. She sticks her bottom lip out in a dramatic pout and wiggles beneath him.

"Not fair," she says but she's smiling and can't hide her delight. She does love being pinned to the bed by him and he knows it.

He leans down and kisses her swiftly on the mouth. "Sorry, love," he smiles. "Can't let you win every time, now can I?"

"Um, you never let me win, babe," she reminds him. "You know, you're the only man who doesn't like me to pounce on him."

His smile eases into a smirk. "I'm sure if those men knew what you had planned when you did pounce on them, they wouldn't be so welcome to it."

She giggles and shrugs and wiggles again. He releases her arms and she immediately loops them around his shoulders, pulling him closer, his body laying completely down on top of hers. They are both naked but both are warm against the cold from outside. She sighs contently as his lips skim across her cheek and down to the side of her throat, nuzzling that spot right beneath the corner of her jaw where he knows she loves to have attention bestowed.

"I'm hungry," she murmurs though she know she shouldn't be thinking about that at this particular moment and she feels his lips curve into a smile against her throat.

"I bet you are, love," he murmurs back.

She laughs a little. "For food, Nik," she smiles as he lifts his head and looks down at her, sharing her smile.

She is the only one to ever call him Nik. To everyone else, he is Klaus. The last person who had called him Nik, who had stupidly and comfortably treated him like an old friend, Klaus had snapped his neck. To her, he's Nik and Klaus and a thousand other nicknames that no one would ever be alive long enough to use.

Years ago, when they first met, when she was scared and alone with no comprehension of what was happening to her, when he found her and showed her how to hunt and feed and survive and live a life she never could have imagined, she hadn't been entirely sure what to think of him.

He had been charming and kind but there had also been something about him that seemed dangerous and frightening. His eyes would flash and his jaw would clench. He never grew angry with her though. She had seen him rip hearts from chests and snap necks but when it came to her, when he became angry with her, he simply left, staying away for hours and then returning, blood smeared on his face and clothes and dropping a dead body in front of her so she could eat, too.

"What do you have a taste for?" He asks, propping himself up on an elbow.

She thinks it over for a moment, drawing random patterns on his bare chest with her index finger. "Are you up for doing a little hunting?" She asked, her eyes smiling. "We haven't done that together in so long."

Klaus smiles a little, his thumb brushing along her full bottom lip. "Feeling a little bored, love?" He asks.

"I just want to do _something_," she was nearly whining. "The compelling people all of the time is getting boring."

He laughs a bit at that and lowering his head, he kisses her. Caroline lifts her hands to frame his face and her lips meet his, slowly and softly. He is trying to distract her and they both know it. Their hearts don't beat, their blood doesn't pump and yet, his kisses always warm her.

The first time he kissed her had been so many years ago – they had been companions by then for ten years but he had never shown any indication that he wanted more. He protected her, never left her side, killed any one he thought crossed her but she never anticipated him to kiss her. They had been in Paris and it had been 1887. Construction of the Eiffel Tower had just begun and Klaus had taken her to the site, a mess of iron and cables and she stared at it, trying to imagine what it would look like but the base wasn't even complete and she just couldn't see it yet even though he tried to explain it to her.

They stayed there for nearly an hour and then they went to the nearest café where he drew her a sketch of what the Eiffel Tower would look like in just two years with the opening of the World's Fair – something they would return to Paris for – and she had smiled and hugged the paper to her chest.

That was when he leaned over and kissed her. Right there, for no other reason other than the light from the gas lamps in the street posts and the glow from the café they sat outside of made her look beautiful and he hadn't been able to resist.

Klaus is an original and everyone fears him but Caroline, she is completely in love with him and she loves the way he kisses her.

"You're distracting me," she laughs against his lips and he smiles against hers.

"Want to get something to eat?" He asks and reluctantly, he shifts his body off of hers.

She doesn't answer that. Instead, she looks into his eyes and her hand lifts, her knuckles brushing along his cheek. "We're leaving soon, aren't we?" She asks quietly, already knowing the answer but she still asks the question nonetheless. She needs her to tell him. He has kept nothing from her over the years and they aren't going to start now.

"We've been here long enough, love," he nods. "Time to push off and move on."

She continues to stare at him. "Mystic Falls," she then says the name of the town that she has heard of often but has never seen.

"That is where the doppelganger is and the moonstone has been located. I have everything in place to complete the ceremony," he sits up and looks towards the window – the snow fall slowing down now – and then he looks back at her. She is still lying down, watching him. "We won't be there long," he then promises and she has no reason not to believe him.

"I _hate_ her," Caroline is very aware she's pouting like a child but she doesn't care. She pushes the covers away and gets out of the bed. She doesn't care that she's completely naked. She stands there and glares at him. "You are completely obsessed with her!"

"Who?" Klaus frowns, his brow furrowing.

"Her! The doppelganger!" She yells at him. He stares at her for a moment and one corner of his mouth quirks in a smile. "Don't you dare smirk at me, Niklaus!"

He laughs now and she actually stomps her foot on the ground. "You're hungry, Caroline. Let's get dressed and get you something to eat." He stands from the bed as well and she glares up at him when his hands slide over her hips and pulls her closer to him. "I find you incredibly beautiful when you're jealous."

"I am not jealous," she insists though she is aware of how ridiculous that sounds since they both know she is.

"I need her blood. You know this. That's all I need from her," he reminds her. He tucks strands of hair behind her ears and cups her face. "She is nothing more than a blood bag."

Caroline sighs. "I know," she whispers.

He continues looking at her and drops his forehead to hers. "Can you stand to wait a little bit more?" He asks.

She tries her hardest not to smile but fails miserably. "Pig," she frowns and he smiles.

"You know what your jealousy does to me," he says as he turns her back towards the bed.

She rolls her eyes and though she hasn't blushed in nearly three hundred years, she still sometimes as if he warms her cheeks. There has been men over the years that have dared to make the mistake of flirting with her and Klaus reacted as he always does. Hearts and spines ripped out, necks snapped, blood drained. The only woman Klaus has ever shown interest in are those women from the damn Petrova bloodline and she can't very well do anything to them. He needs the Petrova doppelganger or everything for him is lost.

"We'll just be in Mystic Falls for a few days?" She asks as he lays her down.

"You have my word, love," he nods, his fingertips skimming down the side of her body.

"And then we can leave and we won't have to go back?" She asks, her hands running down his chest and her thighs part for him, cradling his hips between them.

"If everything goes according to the plan," he leans down and brushes his lips across hers. "Where would you like to go after Virginia?" He asks her, his lips now following the line of her jaw.

Caroline closes her eyes and tunnels her fingers through his hair. "Paris," she whispers.

…

They move silently through the inches of snow, deep in the forest that surround their cabin, alert and waiting. They can smell the rabbits and the deer and in the distance, there are bear and moose but they don't want any of that. They move, ears and noses at attention and almost at the exact same time, they catch scent of something that makes their fangs extract. They both stop and look at one another, her eyes turning black and his turning yellow, and the black veins spread throughout their faces.

The hunter is slowly walking through the trees, snow crunching under his feet, his shotgun held with both hands. His eyes are on the lookout for rabbits and nothing else.

Klaus and Caroline hunt together and it is as if they are dancing – each more perfected after centuries.

Klaus, older and faster and stronger, reaches the man first, knocking him back into a tree, instantly crushing his spinal cord from the force. The man, paralyzed, lies in the snow, gasping, in shock and unable to feel pain at the moment. Caroline is next, down at his side in a flash and then her teeth are buried in his throat, drinking his blood, gulping it down. Klaus stands, watching, letting her have her full. A gentleman always lets his woman drink first.

When Caroline stands up again, her mouth is covered in blood and she licks her lips.

Klaus lets out a growl of attraction and she winks at him, smiling.

He then goes to the hunter, nearly dead now, and the wolf in him snarls at the blood that soaks the ground around him. Caroline watches as Klaus shoves his hand into the man's chest, killing him instantly, and he rips the heart back out, the lump of tough muscle almost seemingly still pulsating in his grip. He chews on the heart, finishing it in five bites, swallowing it all down and then he licks at his own lips.

Caroline walks slowly up to him, swaying her hips with a bit more emphasis, flirtatiously, and he grabs her, tugging her close.

Their mouths meet, open and wanting, and they both moan as their tongues, coated in blood, tangle together. His hands bury in her hair, blood staining her streaks of gold and he kisses her harder, and her hands drop down to his pants, tugging at his belt buckle.

…

* * *

><p><strong>AN** - seriously, I was not expecting that much attention for the first chapter. **THANK YOU** so much to those who commented and put this on your story alerts. I honestly did not think anyone would want to read a story of very dark Caroline with Klaus but I'm so excited that some of you really want to read this. Thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

…

His hand never stills, the black pencil never missing a stroke, as he draws on the sketchpad open across his lap. She appears behind him, sitting down and spreading her legs out on either side of his. Her cheek rests on his back and her arms loop around his waist. He smiles a little to himself but still, the quiet scratching of the pencil never falters.

"Can't you draw in bed?" She asks him softly, her voice laden with sleep.

"I know you can't sleep with the pencil against the paper," he says and leans back against her chest. She smiles and rests her chin on his shoulder. "You should get your rest," he smiles as she nuzzles her nose against the side of his neck. "We're leaving tomorrow and not stopping again until we reach our destination."

Caroline chooses not to listen to him or to respond to his comment. She likes when they're here at their cabin in the middle of the woods. It's just them. Just the two of them. They don't have any of those other annoying vampires or witches or those she refers to a Klaus groupies. It's just the two of them and she's greedy because she wants it to stay that way.

She knows when they get to Virginia, it will be different. He will be consumed with his obsession and she has seen him get like this before. He will be right next to her but he won't be there at all.

She closes her eyes and breathes him in deep, inhaling his familiar scent of pine and earth and a splash of cologne and something that is entirely Klaus. He is right. She is feeling a bit tired and she could get some rest before they begin their travels but she knows that this might be the last time she has him like this. She doesn't want to sleep through it.

She begins humming a song, something they used to hear in the many clubs while they were in New Orleans in the twenties, and her knuckles graze up and down along his bicep. With her chin on his shoulder, she looks at his profile and the pencil is still moving across the paper and his lips are twitching in a smile. She smiles, too, and keeps humming.

Of all of the places they have traveled to in the world, New Orleans still remains one of her favorites and she knows that Klaus misses the twenties. The man has been alive for centuries but he fell in love with that decade – short in terms of eternity. The music and the clubs and the alcohol and even though they didn't need to drink it, they still enjoyed it and with it being illegal, it had somehow tasted even sweeter.

"What made you think of that song?" He breaks through her thoughts.

"I'm not sure. I know how much you love it," she says and turning her head, she rests her cheek on his shoulder. "Maybe we can go back to New Orleans. It has been such a long time since we've been. I can't even imagine how different it looks now."

The scratch of the pencil finally stops. "Even after everything that happened there last time we were there?"

Caroline closes her eyes. She does her best to not think of that.

If she had ever doubted that Klaus would do anything for her, she found out in New Orleans. And she has never forgotten it. She had never doubted him before New Orleans and what happened there, what he did for her, the lengths he would go to keep her safe, and she will go to the end of the world trusting him, and only him.

She begins to hum again and he closes his eyes, leaning more so back against her chest. She slips her arms around him and holds him close.

"Come to bed," she whispers.

He immediately sets his pencil and he sketchbook aside and he stands up, turning and holding out his hand. She slips hers in and he pulls her to her feet. They stand, facing one another, staring into one another's eyes and his hands sweep across her cheeks and his hands bury in her hair. She lifts her own hands, sliding them over his narrow hips.

"I love you," she whispers, moving closer, the space between them diminishing.

"I love you," he whispers back and she smiles every time as if he has never said that to her before. "And I'll take you anywhere in the world you want to go. Paris. New Orleans. Back here. I know you love it here."

"I love anywhere with you," she raises on her toes and kisses him lightly on the lips.

She doesn't tell him that she won't love Mystic Falls. He already knows that. She won't love being there, so close to the doppelganger – the one woman who Klaus has probably thought of more than anything these centuries.

Caroline knows he loves her. He loves her as much as a man can love a woman and he has never been short of showing her that but she isn't a Petrova. And because of that, she wonders if she will ever have _all _of him or if there will always be the tiniest part of himself that she will never be able to have for her own. A part that will always belong to Tatia or Katherine or the doppelganger in Virginia but never her.

Klaus stares into her eyes and with his fingers still in her hair, he brings her face closer to his, his lips parted, almost about to kiss her again but he doesn't. "Why are you so unsure of my feelings towards you? Even after all of this time?" He asks her quietly.

She shakes her head. "I'm not. I just… you know me. Pathetic and insecure Caroline. Just like I was when I was a human girl," she tries to shrug it off, to try and play it off as it meaning absolutely nothing but you can't spend three hundred years with a person and not have them know you. No one knows her better than Klaus.

"Nothing is more important to me than you. Nothing-"

"Except a hybrid," she corrects him and he doesn't argue. He can't because it's the truth.

Creating a race of hybrids – half-vampire, half-werewolf – just like him, along with finding the doppelganger's blood to do it, has been his obsession. Caroline knows he loves her but she will forever be second in his life when it comes to his precious hybrids.

He stares at her and she sees yellow flash in his eyes. He's angry. She knows he is. She suddenly feels too tired to fight with him. Three hundred years, an argument starts to get boring after a while. And he has no right to be angry. Not when she was simply speaking her mind and the truth. They have always been completely open and honest with one another and he can't fault her for that tonight.

Whenever they get into an argument, it usually ends with him storming off and killing someone. Tonight is no different – except, they don't exchange a single word.

He steps back, his hands dropping from her hair, and without a word, he turns and within an instant, he is gone from the room, from the house, the door slamming shut behind him.

She doesn't expect him before dawn. With a sigh, she returns to their bed and lays down.

She doesn't sleep though. She can't.

Sometimes, with the knowledge that she is second, she wonders why she stays with him.

When he returns hours later, after the sun has risen just as she suspected, he smells of human and blood and his clothes are stained in it. He crawls onto the bed and she rolls onto her back, looking up at him. Without a word, he lowers his head and kisses her fully on the lips – a hard, hungry kiss, one that demands she kiss back. And she does. Her hands clutch the lapels of his jacket, tugging him down and the blood from his lips smears onto her own, staining her chin and making her moan.

…

* * *

><p>Katherine laughs, pouring herself a drink from Damon's supply. "What do you want to know?" She asks, turning back towards them. "Or rather, <em>why<em> do you want to know?"

"Oh, I don't know, Katherine," Damon glowers at her from across the room. "Maybe you've forgotten but Klaus is coming."

That shuts her mouth and turning her head, she takes a gulp of the scotch from her glass. She knows how much Damon loves his scotch. She's tempted to take the bottle and smash it onto the floor.

"Do you know anything about Klaus? Or Caroline?" Elena asks, leaning forward on the couch, her hands folded in front of her, eying her doppelganger. "You have to know _something_."

"Yes, Katherine," Damon is still glaring, his arms crossed over chest. "I don't know if you understand the concept but we're rather desperate and are asking you for help-"

"Like you're helping because of the goodness of your heart," Katherine snorts. "And it has absolutely nothing to do with that constant hard-on you have for-"

"Can we stop?" Stefan frowns at her and if anyone can get her to shut up, it's him. "Now please. Just tell us what you know. If you do know anything."

Katherine is quiet for a moment, taking another sip of scotch and then she turns away. They wait, not sure if she will talk or if she is just wasting their time like she is prone to do, but then she sits down in one of the leather chairs.

"Who do you want to hear about first?" She asks them, crossing her long legs, looking at them with a perfectly arched eyebrow.

"Caroline," all three of them answer at the same time.

A small, rueful smile passes over Katherine's lips. "Long story or short story? Short story, Caroline is absolutely insane." She looks to Stefan and Damon. "You think you've met some crazy vampires? You think_ you_ were bad in your day?" She pauses to take another sip of scotch and then gets up to pour herself some more. "I met her in the 1920s in New Orleans. I never saw Klaus. I was still hiding from him and I didn't know he was in the same city but I never saw him. I didn't know he was there until after… I saw Caroline though. She didn't know who I was at the time. I'm sure afterwards, Klaus informed her but I knew exactly who she was."

"How?" Elena can't help but ask.

"Pretty, perky blonde teenager? Just because most vampires haven't met her doesn't mean they don't know who she is. I'm sure these two have told you. _Everyone_ knows who Klaus and Caroline are. They're inseparable… or apparently, they are most of the time. Klaus hardly trusts anyone and rarely leaves wherever they're living at the time. I don't know what he's so worried about. He's practically immortal." She takes a long sip of newly poured scotch from her glass. "It surprised me that Caroline went out without him but she did."

"What did she do?" Elena asks, almost whispering, almost holding her breath.

Katherine turns and stares right at her. "We met at one of those nightclubs, jazz and booze and we just seemed to click instantly. We danced for hours together. The men certainly enjoyed the show."

She ignores Damon's eye roll.

"There was a man there, a human in his twenties, and all night, he desperately tried to get close to Caroline. Most men become so enamored with her."

"Being compelled?" Stefan asks.

Katherine smiles. "Just because you two obviously have a type doesn't mean that other men don't find Caroline's blonde curls and blue eyes beautiful. She may be dead but she has this aura around her. She commands attention and she gets it."

"What about the man?" Elena tries to get her back on track.

"There was a man who wanted her. Caroline flirted and smiled and she made this man believe that she was completely enamored with him. She acted as if he had hung the stars for her. She took him out back and I went with her. What she did to him…" she pauses and has to take another sip of scotch. "Vampires tend to attack a person's throat. That's all we want. Caroline, however, she tore this man apart. Limb from limb. Tore at him and fed from him until he was completely unrecognizable. I have never seen anything like it."

Katherine sits again and shifts in the chair.

"The man had brothers and it took them three days to track Caroline and somehow, they were able to kidnap her."

Elena gasps. She may not know much of anything about Klaus but the idea of Caroline being taken from him, if he loves her as much as Damon and Stefan say he does, this story does not have a happy ending.

"They tortured her. Stabbed her with wooden stakes, burned her in sunlight, rubbed vervain all over her body. Klaus tore New Orleans apart looking for her. Set houses on fire. Performed his own tortures. Thirty-one people were killed. It was a complete massacre. He was the boogeyman. People still talk about him down there."

Another pause, another sip of scotch. They are hanging on her every word.

"When he found her, he showed her captors what a monster he truly is. Those brothers, they never found all of their bodies. Just pieces. And after the brothers, he went to their wives and children and killed them, too. And then he and Caroline left and no one heard from them in nearly five years."

Elena realizes her hands are shaking only when Stefan reaches over and covers hers with one of his, giving it a comforting squeeze – or as comforting as it can be in that situation.

She turns on the couch and looks back at Damon. "Kidnapping Caroline is a _really_ stupid idea. We need to think of something else."

"Or…" Stefan begins to say, surprising her. "It might just be so stupid, it could actually work. We won't torture her. We kidnap her and we kill her. Just like that."

"Just like that?" Katherine almost wants to laugh but it's just too idiotic – even for her. She sets her glass down and stands up. "If you are even _thinking_ of doing anything to Caroline to get to Klaus, I am getting as far away from Mystic Falls as possible before that happens. None of you will survive that."

…

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** This is the first long "Klaroline" story I have written, normally just writing short drabbles, so I can't thank you enough for reading and embracing this story and commenting and leaving feedback. I had no idea how you would accept a dark Caroline and her relationship with Klaus.

**THANK YOU** so, so much for reading and please, comment! It really means a lot to me and I hate that so many read and only a few can take the time to comment - unless it's truly awful and no one is telling me that.


	4. Chapter 4

…

The music thumps throughout the Mystic Grill and she stands in the center of it, hands in her hair, hips moving to the heavy bass, and he sits at a table in the corner, watching her.

She has the attention of every man – and some women – in the restaurant that night and he knows it. Klaus watches her but he watches them all as well and though he looks completely relaxed, reclined in his chair, his feet kicked up onto the other empty chair opposite him, he will be ready to react within a second if anything happens.

They have only been in Mystic Falls for a few hours and she had been too anxious to stay in the house he had gotten for them for their stay there. He isn't one to show himself like this but he admitted to himself that he hadn't wanted to stay in either.

Mystic Falls is a very small town and this place seems to be one of their few options.

He watches her dance and he watches the door. He needs to start learning everything he can about everyone in this town. He needs to find the doppelganger. He needs to watch her and memorize her life. He has been waiting for her for centuries.

He will not lose her.

He hears Caroline giggle and his eyes instantly sweep to where she is still dancing but now, someone has been brave enough to approach her – a boy, seventeen or eighteen, with dark hair and a cockiness to him that makes him frown.

"_I've never seen you here before," _Klaus easily hears the boy say from across the room and over the music. He nearly rolls his eyes. Why do boys insist on using that line?

He has no patience for this tonight. He and Caroline need to keep a low-profile for the time being and murdering some over-eager lad hours within their arrival would be a poor decision on his part.

He leaves their table and crosses the restaurant to where she is, still dancing, still giggling, amused from the boy and his pathetic efforts but the boy interprets her giggling as flirting and he moves closer to her.

"I'm Tyler," he says and one of his hands boldly snakes onto her hip, putting himself closer to her still swaying body.

Klaus lets out a growl and Caroline immediately hears it, spinning away from the boy named Tyler towards him. She smiles the instant she sees him and she circles her arms around his neck, her lips skimming along his jaw, and he wraps one arm securely around her waist, holding her close, his eyes focused on Tyler.

"Leave," is all he says, his eyes darkening, compelling him, and without a word, the boy turns and walks away. "What is with you and all of these boys, love?" He asks her softly, his lips to her ear.

She smiles against his throat. "I prefer my very much older man." A new song begins to play and with her arms still wrapped around his shoulders, Caroline begins swaying back and forth to the tune. "Dance with me," she says quietly. "I love this song."

He doesn't want to dance but of course, this is Caroline and Klaus will dance with her. His other arm joins the one already wrapped around her waist and he follows her movements, their bodies swaying together to the song. She smiles and closes her eyes and while he holds her close, his eyes sharp and attentive, quickly counting the number of people in the room, how many males, how many females, his nose pricks and he pushes through the smells barraging his nose, trying to concentrate.

She can sense it happening already. Now that they have arrived, she has lost him. His arms are around her, he is keeping her close, but he isn't there. That didn't take very long. She had thought that perhaps she would have one more night with him but she should have known. He has been looking for the doppelganger and the doppelganger is in Mystic Falls. Now that they are in Mystic Falls as well, all Klaus cares about is the doppelganger. Finding her and getting her for the ritual.

Caroline keeps her eyes closed. Maybe if she does, she can pretend that they are dancing like they used to do in England.

While they lived there, they were invited to every ball during the season, attending each one and dancing and drinking the night away. Each time, Klaus had bought her a new dress and never left her side and they were a beautiful, young couple – in love and wealthy and the envy of everyone who saw them. They used to laugh because they would walk back to their townhouse in the predawn hours and she would trip over the long skirts of her dress as they hunted.

Maybe after Mystic Falls, they can go back to London instead.

His arms are tight around her and even with her eyes closed, she knows people are watching them. She's used to it. People are always watching them.

"What do you see?" She asks him and she lifts her head from his shoulder.

He glances at her and then back to watching the people. "We should go for a walk."

Caroline nods in agreement and she leaves him to go back to their table where her black leather jacket is still hanging over the back of her chair. When she turns, she finds him already standing at the door, waiting for her, speaking on his cell phone. She doesn't say a word as she comes to him. He holds the door open for her and she steps outside, him right behind her, his hand on the small of her back.

"Good," Klaus frowns into the phone. "Tell her I no longer require her assistance. Tell her that she is done." Without another word, he ends the call and slips the phone back into his pocket. She looks at him expectedly but doesn't ask him to tell her. He will. "We will no longer be having Isobel," he says simply.

She knows what it means when Klaus says that. Isobel will be meeting the sun very soon.

"Good," she nods. "I never liked her. She was always so desperate for your approval. Like you're anything special," she throws him a smile and he smirks. They walk down the sidewalk together and he takes his hand in hers. She smiles when he lifts it to his lips and kisses her knuckles. "I take it though that she did what you asked?" She continues.

"Elena Gilbert," Klaus responds. "And your old friend is here as well, according to Isobel," he tells her.

Caroline gives him a curious look, smiling. "I have so many friends," she teases. "You must be more specific."

She still hears the music humming through her body and she does a little skip in her step. Klaus smiles slightly and still holding her hand, he lifts her arm and gives her a spin. She giggles and she sounds so innocent and sounds so young. Moments like this, Klaus looks at her and he is able to see the youthful mortal girl she once was – before he found her.

He so much enjoys everything about her.

"Katherine," he answers shortly and immediately, Caroline stops dancing and she halts in her tracks, staring at him.

"Here? In Mystic Falls? How do you know?"

If her heart beat, it would be pounding right now. Katherine? That is not good. There are few people Klaus hates as much as he hates Katherine. It is past the point of hate. He despises her. Caroline has only met her once – in New Orleans all of those years ago – but Klaus has known her for much longer and centuries ago, she had ruined his first attempt at the ritual by turning into a vampire.

Klaus is not the one to forget and he certainly isn't the type to forgive.

"Elijah just called," Klaus answers, both of his hands now in the pockets of his jacket. "She is being held somewhere. Trapped. Elijah wants to release her." He says the last sentence with some bitterness; thinly-veiled disgust. His brother has never been able to separate the doppelgangers from Tatia. "I need you to do me a favor, love," he says.

"Of course," Caroline's agreement is immediate.

His lips twitch. In all of their years together, she has been the most loyal. She loves him. Truly loves him. She is the only person to have ever loved him completely. And he loves her. Before her, the mere thought of a companion had never appealed to him. He had seen vampires in relationships with one another and he had seen the way it had clouded their judgments. Love was their weakness.

But then he found Caroline, a new vampire, barely having been turned for a week. She was scared and confused but when Klaus saw her, he saw something else. She was beautiful and full of light and he became completely enamored with her. He fell in love and there is nothing he won't do for her. Just like there is nothing she won't do for him.

"A witch is the one who has trapped Katherine. This witch is Elena Gilbert's best friend," Klaus tells her and his hands come to her cheeks, smoothing blonde hair back from her face for her. There is a soft breeze blowing, rustling the strands. "I can't risk her causing any problems."

Caroline nods, staring in his eyes. "I'll take care of her," she agrees.

"That's my girl," Klaus smiles and Caroline beams.

He leans in and kisses her softly on the lips. Her eyes flutter shut and she leans into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. His hands slide back, fingers tangling in her hair, and he tilts his head, slanting his mouth of hers, kissing her deeply. Caroline moans, pressing back, her tongue swirling around his. He had had a drink inside the Mystic Grill and she tastes the sharpness of the whisky on his tongue.

"Mmmmmm," Caroline smiles serenely as their lips part and she looks at him. He is watching her, his eyes intent, his own lips tugged into a smile. "We should eat and then we should go back home," she suggests. "I want you," she then whispers. She hates how there is a hidden layer of almost desperation in her voice and she knows that he is able to pick up on it immediately.

She hates being here and she needs to know that when they leave again, she'll still have him. He has promised her but she needs to hear it again. She has been with no one but Klaus in three-hundred years. She wants no one but him.

"Tomorrow, I will find the witch," she then promises.

Klaus nods. "Do what you always do, love. Take your time. I don't want to make my presence in this town known quite yet. I want to learn everything I can about her."

"I've been thinking about that," she lifts her arms and loops them around his neck as his own drop down to slide around her waist. "Don't you think I look young enough to be in high school?" She asks him with a smile and mischief in her eyes.

Klaus absolutely loves this look when she gets it. He grins. "Technically, love, you're seventeen. Most seventeen-year-olds are in high school."

"Well, that's good, since I'm going to go to Mystic Falls High School and register for classes tomorrow," she smiles.

He stares at her for a moment, not saying anything, his face completely blank. He lifts a hand and brushes his fingers along her cheek, her head tilting towards his touch, her eyes connected with his, never breaking away.

"What would I do without you?" He asks.

He sometimes wonders how this happened. How he, a centuries old vampire/werewolf hybrid, one of the original vampires in all the world, came to love one other vampire as much as he loves her. And the question is a truthful one. He has no idea what would he would do without her. He would destroy this world if anything ever happened to her.

Surely, she knows that. He thinks he has proven that more than enough times over the past three hundred years together.

Caroline smiles at him. "Just don't expect me to do the homework," she says and he breaks into a smile, moving in closer, resting his forehead to hers. "Do we know the witch's name?"

"Bonnie."

She exhales a deep breath. "You learn about Elena. I will learn about Bonnie. When you give the word, can I make it slow?"

"As slow and painful as you want, love," he smiles. Even after all of these years, she still has such a child's enthusiasm for blood and torture. "Now what was it? Food and then home?" He asks and she smiles once again before kissing him.

The boy – a teenager – is behind the Mystic Grill, tossing garbage bags into the dumpster.

"Hello."

He jumps, startled, and spins around to see a beautiful blonde girl standing there, smiling at him. "Where did you come from?" He asks, his heart pounding in his chest. "You scared the crap out of me," he admits and the girl lets out a giggle.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes and sticks out her hand. "I'm Caroline."

"I'm Matt," he smiles and shakes her hand in return. "I think I saw you inside."

"Oh, you work here?" She asks, sounding interested.

"It's a glamorous job but someone's got to do it," he answers. She giggles again and he smiles. "Are you new here?"

Caroline nods. "Yes, my boyfriend and I just moved here. Not sure if we'll stay though."

"Oh," he tries not to make the feeling of deflation at her words so obvious. "Wait…" he looks at her. She is so beautiful. "You moved here with your boyfriend? You look like you're in high school."

"I am!" She beams and she seems especially excited about that. "I'm actually going to be registering tomorrow."

"Well, if you need help with anything… find me tomorrow. I can show you around," he offers with a shy smile and Caroline smiles, too, taking a step closer to him.

"That is so sweet, Matt," she nods. "And actually, I do need your help with something."

"Anything," he is staring into her eyes and there's something that makes him unable to look away. She is staring straight into his as well, her hands on his shoulders.

"If you don't mind," Caroline tells him. "I need you to turn and run away in those woods behind us. My boyfriend and I do love a good chase. We'll even give you a head start."

He nods his head slowly. He doesn't understand. All he knows is that he wants to run into the woods right now. He wants to do that more than anything.

"Off you go," she smiles and pats him on the shoulder. "Thank you, Matt."

Matt turns and Caroline watches him as he runs away, disappearing into the darkness of the trees. He certainly won't get far. There's no harm in letting him ahead of her.

Caroline smiles as an arm slides around her waist from behind and she feels the firm chest of Klaus pressing against her back. He leans down and brushes his lips along the curve of her neck. A moan rises up from the back of her throat and she covers his hand with hers, leaning back into him.

"You compelling boys never ceases to turn me on," he murmurs in her ear and she smiles. "Most of the time though, I don't think you need to compel them. I think they are like me. They would do absolutely anything if you asked them to."

She turns her head and nuzzles her nose against his cheek. "Not everything," she whispers.

But before he can ask her to explain, she breaks away from him and runs into the woods, disappearing.

Klaus can smell the boy's blood, can hear the heart rapidly beating, pulsing throughout his body. He closes his eyes and can feel Caroline already gaining on him.

The instant that boy saw Caroline smiling at him, he never stood a chance.

...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I am seriously completely blown away by how many people have added this story to their favorites and their alerts. Thank you so much! I can't even thank you enough!

And of course, **THANK YOU **to those who read and then actually take the time to comment. The lurkers are frustrating as hell but those who love the story enough to comment, you are so awesome and I love you to death! THANK YOU!


	5. Chapter 5

…

"I feel so sad for her," Elena says, staring at the sketch of Caroline in the book that she has borrowed from Stefan.

"Why?" Bonnie frowns. "Elena, she's some crazy killer vampire and she's coming here with her crazy killer vampire boyfriend who wants to kill you."

"I know, but…" Elena shakes her head slightly. "She was our age, Bonnie. She was just seventeen when she became a vampire. She died and… everything was gone for her."

"I don't care," Bonnie shakes her own head, sitting down next to her on the bed. "She's a vampire. Whoever she was, she died. Whoever Caroline _was_, that's not who she is anymore. Now, she's crazy and blood thirsty and she does whatever Klaus tells her to."

"Katherine told us stories about them," Elena turns back a few pages to look at the sketching of Klaus. "He seems to be just as enamored with her. You should have heard about them together," she looks to Bonnie. "They don't care about anything except one another. It's terrifying but-"

"No," Bonnie interrupts. "There are no buts about it, Elena. It isn't romantic or sweet or anything like that. They're vampires and they're mass murderers."

"Technically… Stefan and Damon are mass murderers, too," Elena points out to her though she's not sure why. She's terrified of Klaus coming and Katherine's stories only confirm her fear. Klaus is coming for her. To him, she is nothing more than a doppelganger. A blood bag. The vessel for what he needs for this ritual he must perform.

The only thing Klaus cares about besides this ritual he needs to complete in order to become the ultimate hybrid is Caroline.

He loves her. History has proven that he will do anything for her.

And Stefan and Damon's brilliant idea is to kidnap her and kill her.

Elena goes back to looking at Caroline's portrait. Pale skin, blonde bouncy hair, blue eyes. She is beautiful. And so young. Dating Stefan, she thinks of this often. Becoming a vampire. Caroline hadn't had a choice. She had been tricked into drinking the blood of a vampire and then her neck had been snapped just hours later. She had been just a girl, filled with hopes and dreams. Maybe she dreamt of marrying a man she loved. Maybe she dreamt of growing older with him and sharing a life with him. Maybe she dreamt of having children. Elena knows she, herself, wants children someday.

She tries to imagine if Caroline had been scared when she first woke up, now dead, now a vampire. And then she met Klaus and she became a complete monster.

Stefan tries so hard to be good, to curb his craving for human blood – instead feasting on blood bags and animals in the woods, never attacking a person anymore – and she tries to imagine how different Caroline would be if Stefan had been the one to find her all of those years ago instead of Klaus. How different things would be.

Elena can't help but be curious about it all. She loves Stefan and Stefan loves her and they have both done so much for one another but Klaus and Caroline seem to be on such a completely different level.

That kind of love and devotion to one another person, she has only read about it in books and seen it in Hollywood movies. She had never thought it could actually exist and the closest she thought she would ever get is what she has with Stefan.

"You need to stop thinking about things like this," Bonnie tells her.

"I know," Elena sighs but she keeps staring at Caroline's sketch. "It's just sad."

"She will kill you in an instant if she has the chance, Elena," Bonnie reminds her. "There is absolutely nothing sad about her. She's a vampire."

Elena looks at her, smiling with a bit of sadness in her eyes. "A seventeen-year-old girl who fell in love with a vampire? Sounds a little familiar."

"You are nothing like Caroline and we're not talking about this anymore," Bonnie's words are firm and final and she stands. "Now, let's go. We're going to be late to school." She takes the book from Elena's hands and toss it aside, it landing on the bed. She then claps her hands. "Up, up, up!" She grabs Elena's hands and Elena rolls her eyes but laughs and allows Bonnie to pull her up to her feet. "Okay. What are we not thinking about?" Bonnie asks.

Elena sighs. "Klaus or Caroline."

"And what are we thinking about instead?" Bonnie looks at her, waiting. "Our test today? In pre-calc? Do you remember?"

Elena stares at her for a moment and then her eyes widen and she gasps. "Oh, crap!"

…

* * *

><p>Caroline giggles and then moans as Klaus's lips skim down the front of her body, between her breasts and to her stomach. His tongue circles her belly button and her back arches from the bed, her fingers tunneling through his dirty blonde curly locks.<p>

"Are you trying to make me late for my first day of school?" She asks him, adjusting her head on the pillow so she can watch as he moves even lower.

He smiles against her hip. "I have no idea why but you saying that does things to me."

She laughs and he tosses her legs over his shoulders, settling down on his stomach between them. Her laughter turns into a long moan as he puts his mouth on her. She sighs his name and closes her eyes, her back arching from the bed again. He uses his tongue and she feels his fingers slipping inside of her and she gasps, digging her head back into the pillow beneath her.

Her hips fly from the bed and his hands clamp them down as he dives in deeper. Her thighs press against his ears and she cries out again, louder this time. She feels his mouth curve into a smile and her fingers dive into his hair again, grasping it, pulling him close. His mouth is wet and warm and he licks her, tasting and sucking her, making her moan and cry out and her body twists on the bed, trying to get away and yet, not wanting him to stop. He makes her feel so fantastic, she sometimes wonders if she can handle it.

"Klaus!" She cries out as her body explodes, every nerve sparking and igniting and she begins to tremble. He doesn't move his mouth away and stays with her through it.

She had never had an orgasm as a human.

She had lived with two very strict religious parents and they had sheltered her from the world for all of her life. She had been engaged to be married to a man she had only met a few times. She was a virgin who never explored anything about herself.

When she met Klaus and he took her with him, showing her how to live as she does now, they weren't intimate with one another away. They were together for years before he kissed her in Paris near the unfinished Eiffel Tower. And then, even after that, he hadn't wanted to rush her into anything. As he always liked to remind her, they had an eternity.

When one becomes a vampire, every sense is heightened to the extreme and how to reign it in and control it is something that must be taught and learned. Caroline was able to have an Original for her teacher and Klaus taught her everything he could. But while teaching her control, he also unleashed something inside of her that her parents had tried to suppress for her entire life and once it was no longer pressed down and forced to be hidden, there was absolutely no stopping it.

She can control everything if the situation calls for it or she can lose all power over it.

When she and Klaus had sex for the first time, Caroline thought he had killed her and she had died. Again.

The control he had taught her is instantly forgotten and she screams and growls and bites and scratches and Klaus loves every second of it. Not only is Klaus a vampire, but he's a hybrid; a werewolf. A complete animal in bed. He sometimes bites her and then she has to drink his blood so it will heal since his bite can cause her grave harm. She has grown to be a woman who loves her body and who loves sex and who loves being with her boyfriend and the young woman her parents were trying to raise her to be, Caroline can't even remember her anymore. It hardly seems real to her that she had even existed at all.

When the shakes of her body begin to subside, small aftershock tremors still popping at random spots, Klaus lifts his head and presses kisses to the inside of her thighs. She pants as if she's out of breath though she feels nothing like that anymore and she manages to prop herself up onto her elbows, looking at him. He lifts his head completely and smiles at her, a smile she returns – naturally, like a reflex.

"Alright, mister. What do you want?" She asks, her eyes twinkling, and he smirks.

"Why do you always think I want something, love, when I do that?" He asks, slowly crawling over her body, dropping kisses to her stomach and ribs and then her breasts and the side of her throat.

Caroline falls onto her back again and smiles up at him. "Please. We both know I'm easy," she jokes and he grins at that, his hands pressing down on the mattress on either side of her head. Caroline runs her hands up his arms, never looking away from his eyes.

Klaus shakes his head a little. "You amaze me," he tells her in a soft, low voice as if he doesn't want to run the risk of anyone overhearing.

"I haven't done anything," she shakes her head. "I'm just going to do a little spying. Nothing amazing about it." She lifts a hand to his cheek. "I'd do anything to help you."

He lowers his head and she expects a hard kiss but instead, his lips brush across hers. "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to you."

"It's high school, Nik," she almost wants to laugh. "How bad can it possibly be?"

He shifts off of her a bit but she doesn't let him go far. They roll onto their sides, facing one another, their bodies pressed together from chest to thigh and their arms are wrapped around one another.

"Never underestimate the cruelty of teenagers, Caroline. Especially teenage girls."

"I think I can handle them," she smiles faintly. "After all, I've dealt with you this long."

He smiles and turning his head, he presses a kiss to the inside of her wrist as her knuckles brush along his cheek. "You won't need to go for that long. The next full moon is within the week," he tells her and she nods.

"What are you going to do with Katherine?" She asks him, her fingers now scratching through the hairs on the back of his head.

"What I should have been able to do over the last few centuries. She will not escape me again," he says and his jaw tightens just a little bit more at the mention of the Petrova.

Caroline is quiet for a moment, deciding on her next words. She doesn't hate Katherine like Klaus does. He truly despises her. But she certainly doesn't trust her and there are already so few people she and Klaus can actually trust. They all want to be near him because he's an Original and they all want her because of him. It seems there are those who will be as deceitful as they can be to get to him – or in Katherine's case, to stay away from him.

"You don't still think…" she stares into his eyes. "Do you think she was the one who allowed those brothers to get to me?" She asks even though she already knows his opinion on the matter.

"You are strong, Caroline. Much stronger than three incompetent humans. And you told me that Katherine was with you when those brothers grabbed you," he reminds her.

"I just can't believe… we had so much fun together. I thought she was my friend," she says in a quiet voice.

She doesn't have many friends.

She has Klaus, of course, and they know vampires all over the world. And there are his brothers and sister that they spend the most time with when they decided to spend time with anyone but she doesn't have that many that she would consider to be true friends. When she met Katherine in New Orleans, having no idea that she was the Petrova vampire doppelganger that Klaus often cursed about, they had had so much fun, dancing and drinking and flirting with men and hunting together. She had told her that her name was Kate and Caroline had had no reason to not believe her.

"Katherine will do whatever she has to do in order to survive," Klaus tells her in a gentle voice he uses only for her. His hand smoothes back some of her hair. "Normally, I would respect such traits but not with her. Not when she betrayed me and not when she…" he stops himself, not wanting to say it, and instead, he stares into her eyes. "I would kill a thousand people to bring you back to me," he whispers.

Caroline moves closer to him, pressing her body to his and he wraps his arms tightly around him, holding her close.

"Will you and Elijah go and see her today?" She asks him quietly.

Klaus nods. "There are many things that need to be discussed," he presses his lips to her forehead and rests them there. "Don't get too close to Elena and Bonnie today. Watch from a distance. Elijah has told me some things and Elena has a merry band of friends that have been doing their research. They will know of you."

She is quiet for a moment, thinking that over. She then shakes her head. "They don't know what I look like. They probably have that awful sketch of me that you drew while we were in Venice and there isn't exactly a likeness," she teases him, breaking the somber mood hanging heavily above their heads.

Klaus growls and she shrieks with laughter as he tickles her on the ribs underneath her breasts. Her body twists and she is laughing, pushing on his chest.

He grins, not stopping his torturing even as he slides on top of her. She spreads her legs for him and then he is drawing his hips back before pressing inside of her, sinking in deeply.

She moans and his hands stop, sliding up her body and bringing her arms back, pinning her wrists above her head. She closes her eyes as his hips are brought back again and then are thrust forward, his length entering her tight and accepting body, both of them moaning.

She honestly doesn't care how late she is for her first day of high school.

…

* * *

><p>Lucy Mikaelson.<p>

That is the name she gives to the woman at the registration desk in the front office and compels her that she doesn't need to see her records. Lucy had been her mother's name and Mikaelson is the name that Klaus is using at the moment – for his father – though after hearing so many stories about that horrid man, Caroline has no idea why Klaus wants anything that even mentions him.

The halls of Mystic Falls High are crowded with students walking to their next class and Caroline looks down at the piece of paper in her hand – class schedule and locker number. She frowns as she sees what she is assigned to take. French I. She's fluent. History. She knows it. English Literature. She and Klaus are constantly reading. Pre-Calculus. What the hell is that?

People are looking at her – all curious as to who the new student is. Caroline smiles at some of them as she makes her way to her locker. She is supposed to be the new girl – eager to make new friends.

But as she walks, she keeps a lookout. The high school isn't that big and Klaus is right. She wants to watch Bonnie and Elena. She doesn't want to engage them – not yet anyway. She will wait for Klaus to give her the go-ahead before that. And if Elijah is right – and he usually is – they know about her. She doesn't want to expose herself too soon to them.

Her eyes also search the halls and faces for Matt. She had showed control in the woods the night before and had not drained him as she drank from him. No, she has other plans for him. She will have him under her compulsion and he will be her eyes and ears in places she cannot go.

As she spins the combination of her locker, her nose catches a whiff of something. Very familiar.

Cologne and blood and she lifts her head. It is very close and it's unmistakable.

She knows that scent. It has been such a long time since she has inhaled it but she hasn't forgotten. She sniffs the air one more time though she is certain of it and she spins around.

She gasps when she sees who is there, standing behind her, watching her. He looks the same and yet more modern. Jeans and a tee-shirt and a black jacket, his hair styled and sticking up a bit. Still as pale as ever though and she bursts into a smile when she sees him. She hadn't known he was here. She hasn't seen him in years. She wonders if Klaus knows that he's here. Why is he here?

"Stefan!" She exclaims, so happy to see him, and she throws her arms around him in a hug.

…

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I love all of you. Seriously. I cannot believe the response this story is getting and I'm so happy, grateful and relieved because when I began, I doubted that anyone would want to read about dark! Caroline. So THANK YOU so, so much for all of the comments and support. Your comments really push me to write this story. PLEASE keep commenting!

There have been a few requests of showing some of Klaus and Caroline's past together. I will definitely fit that into the story.

Also, I'm an idiot. I made a boo-boo with some of my math. I know when Caroline turned and when Klaus found her and I made a stupid mistake in one of the earlier chapters. I will edit that and be more careful from now on. Thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

…

"Elijah," Klaus smiles as he approaches his brother and Elijah returns the smile, turning towards him. They embrace and pat one another on the back. "You're looking well."

"You as well," Elijah nods once they step apart. "But where is the ever lovely Caroline?"

"High school," Klaus answers with a bit of a smirk.

Elijah is quiet for a moment, blinking at him, and then he gives his own little half smile, understanding, having known the blonde for nearly as long as his brother. "She is an amazing creature," he compliments his brother.

"The best," Klaus nods as he turns towards the staircase that leads down into the cave, his smile completely disappearing and his eyes hardening. "Tell me."

"She's down there," Elijah nods. "Scarlett is waiting for your word on whether to keep her there or to let her go."

Klaus is silent, staring down the stone steps, taking a minute. "We're going to let her go," he says, looking back to Elijah who understandably looks surprised. "I can't very well torture her if she's in a crypt that makes her virtually untouchable to me."

"Perhaps we could-"

Klaus sets his steel gaze onto his brother. "No, Elijah. Perhaps we can't."

Elijah closes his mouth and reluctantly nods his head. "I've spent many years chasing her," he says, staring down the stone steps. "I just suppose I don't know what I'll do with myself now."

Klaus' lips twitch in a somewhat smile and he claps a hand onto his brother's back. "No worries, Elijah. You've been around for many years. You'll find a new hobby."

He begins to descend down the steps, entering the dark crypt with Elijah behind him. Moisture clings to the walls and he hears a few drops of water drip down from the earth above as they enter the dark cavernous room. He smiles when he sees Scarlett, one of the few allowed in his inner circle after proving her loyalty to him time and time again. She is his own personal witch and she walks to him as he enters.

"Klaus," she smiles.

"I see you got my message," Klaus says.

She nods. "I came the instant I received it." She looks past him but only sees Elijah. She looks back to Klaus with curiosity. "Did Caroline not come with you? Is she in Canada still?" She asks.

Klaus smiles again. Apparently, he and Caroline are allowed to never go somewhere without the other. "She is seeing to her own task for me at the moment." His eyes drift past Scarlett and look to the large entrance hole in the crypt wall. "You can release her?"

Scarlett nods again. "A Bennett witch has trapped her in there with a containment spell. It's strong but I can break it. If she can do this however, for the ritual-"

"Caroline will be seeing to the Bennett witch. Now, release her," Klaus orders.

He and Elijah stand off to the side as Scarlett stands in front of the entrance. They have yet to see Katherine but Klaus can sense her. She is in the darkness, hiding somewhere. He hasn't seen her in so long and he is eager to be reunited with her.

Minutes pass, Scarlett murmuring an incantation to herself, her hands held up in front of her, her eyes closed and a slight breeze appears, rustling her hair. It is a quiet process and when she turns to the two brothers, she gives a slight nod.

"It is safe for you to enter," she informs him.

Klaus does not hesitate. He strides past her and enters the cave. He can smell her and she is afraid. He smiles to himself. Good. She should be. She has managed to escape him for centuries now but today, there will be no slipping past him. Today, she will face him. She has many things to answer for and once she does, he will enjoy using her spine as a backscratcher. Maybe he'll give Caroline her heart as a memento of sorts. After all, because of her, Caroline almost lost her own in New Orleans.

Katherine gasps and chokes with surprise as suddenly, she finds herself pinned back against a wall, her feet dangling above the ground and Klaus' hand wrapped around her throat. His eyes are already flashing yellow and she scratches at his arm, desperate to be put down again though she knows that he will keep her there all day if he so wishes.

"It's been a long time, Katerina," Klaus says in a quiet voice. It's calm and steady and that's what completely terrifies her. "Not as long as you would think though. What was it? New Orleans. 1923? Or was it four? You must forgive me. Years tend to run together when you've gone through so many," he smiles at her.

"Klaus," she gasps. "I didn't-"

His smile vanishes. "That is what you always think, Katerina."

He stares at her, tilting his head slightly to the side, studying her. She is beautiful. He will give her that much. But while she has left men – including his own brother – panting after her, he has never wanted her. Just what flows within. But then she had made that completely useless to him by turning and she forced him to wait centuries for the next doppelganger to appear. And as he waited, her very survival had taunted him.

She reminds him of a cockroach. She will always survive. No matter what. She takes care of herself and does what she has to in order to keep her eternity. He almost respects that.

But New Orleans is still fresh in his mind. Not just the frustration of having her so close and not even knowing until Caroline told him of her presence in the city but for the hand he was sure she played in Caroline's abduction and torture. It has happened before. It is why being with him is so dangerous for Caroline. There will always be some foolish sort that will think that to get to him, they must go through her.

And they are right.

He will do anything for her, go to any lengths to protect her or to get her back to him. He will burn down cities and murder hundreds if it means her safe return.

And in New Orleans, that is exactly what Katerina forced him to do. He still remembers finding Caroline, bloodied and tortured and near death and he knew that the three brothers weren't the only ones responsible for it. Someone with strength must have helped them. Someone with more strength than Caroline and who had that besides the older vampire she had been spending time with and who knew that Caroline belonged to him? Who knew that the quickest way to hurt him was to hurt her?

Katerina.

For a vampire who has been running for him for centuries and who has been able to allude him, she is certainly a stupid little thing.

His fingers tighten around her throat and he stares at her with fangs retracted and yellow in his eyes.

"I hope you don't have someplace you need to be, Katerina," he says to her calmly and she gasps, still clawing at his arm and shoulder, her legs kicking back and forth. "We've been apart for so long, I was hoping to take my time in reacquainting myself with you."

He smiles as she looks at him with those big brown eyes of hers, completely petrified.

"Caroline still has her doubts that you had anything to do with what happened in New Orleans," he then takes a step closer, his hand tightening even more, crushing her throat. She chokes though she doesn't breathe. He stares into her eyes. "But I know you," he whispers. "You want me dead, don't you, Katerina?" He smiles a little then. "You know, in all of my centuries of existing, I have never gotten tired of watching what desperation drives a person to do."

"Klaus," she tries to say his name but is choking instead and he keeps smiling, watching her. He can do this all day – all eternity. She deserves to suffer for that long. "Caroline…" she coughs.

He snarls. "I'll snap your neck if you say her name again."

"But she…" Katherine coughs again. "They are going to kill her."

Klaus stares at her. She is not to be trusted. She will do and say anything to be spared and he has never been one to fall for her charms. He isn't going to start now.

Still, the mention of Caroline makes him pause.

"And who is trying to kill her?" He asks.

He must admit, he's a little curious. Katherine's instincts to survive this have kicked in and she apparently has chosen his love for Caroline as a way of maybe saving herself.

"Let me go," she stares bravely into his eyes. "I'll tell you everything. They told me their plan. I told them how stupid it was."

"They?" Klaus raises an eyebrow. "There is more than one of them?"

"Let me go," she says again.

He doesn't and lets a few more minutes tick by. With a sigh, he then releases her throat and takes a step back, allowing her to fall to the ground with a thud. He almost smiles but he does as he watches her scramble to her feet.

"You run, I rip your heart out," he tells her bluntly, his voice calm and nonchalant. "Who is trying to kill Caroline?" He asks.

Katherine rests a hand on her throat, struggling to swallow. "Damon Salvatore and his brother, Stefan."

Klaus growls at both names. He has never met Damon but he has heard so many stories about him. He's an insolent pup – cocky and thinks himself something of a bad boy. The term makes him laugh. Klaus imagines flicking him away like a crumb on his pants.

But Stefan, he knows Stefan very well. There had been a time when they had been a trio. Himself, Stefan and Caroline. A family of sorts. They had lived and hunted together. He and Caroline had both looked to him as a brother. They had had so much fun together. But then something flipped in Stefan and he decided that what they did was wrong and he wanted to feed on bunnies in the forests instead.

Stefan Salvatore has been one of his greatest disappointments in nearly all of his existence. Hearing his name still conjures up such anger and frustration and regret.

And to think of him being part of a plan to kill Caroline… Klaus isn't sure what to think. This is, after all, Katerina telling him such things. She will speak of anything and try to convince him that it is the truth.

"They know that she is your greatest weakness," Katherine continues. "Your _only_ weakness," she then adds, looking at him. "They will do anything to get to you."

"And why do they bother themselves with anything I'm doing?" Klaus wonders.

"The doppelganger," she answers. "Elena Gilbert. Both of them are in love with her."

Klaus raises an eyebrow. "Again? Weren't they already both in love with you?"

Katherine shrugs and touches her hair. "They have a type, that's for sure."

He almost smiles. He prefers blondes with blue eyes and who giggle and smile often. He grows stoic again, staring at her, his eyes flashing.

"And why should I believe you?" He questions her. "You will say whatever you need to for me to spare you, Katerina."

She shakes her head, frantically. "This is the truth, Klaus. I swear to you. I'll help you-"

In a flash, Klaus has her pinned against the wall again with his hand around her throat. He snarls. "I want nothing from you, Katerina," he tells her in a low voice, his eyes locked with hers.

"It's true though," she says. "They are going to kidnap Caroline and kill her."

"Kidnap and kill her? That sounds familiar," his fingers tighten.

His cell phone begins to ring in his pocket and he drops Katherine again, her body crumbling to the ground. He rips the phone from his pocket and he knows that it's Caroline. He still answers with a frustrated snap.

"What?"

"Whoa, Mr. Cranky Pants," Caroline frowns. "We have talked about phone etiquette before, remember? Especially when talking to me."

He exhales. At least she is alright. "Forgive me. What is it? How's the first day?"

"You are never going to believe who I ran into just now!" She then exclaims and he can easily imagine her practically bouncing with excitement. "Stefan's here! He goes to school at Mystic Falls High, too! Did you know about this and not tell me?"

He feels his entire body go completely still. He looks down to Katherine. She is still on the ground but sitting up now, leaning back against the wall behind her. He doesn't believe her. He doesn't believe a single word she says and yet… Stefan is here, in Mystic Falls. Klaus feels as if he should have known that.

"Caroline, where are you right now?" He asks, keeping all sense of calm in his voice.

Somehow though, she hears something else. They have been together for too long.

"What is it?" She asks, dropping her voice. "Tell me."

"Stefan Salvatore is not to be trusted, love. I need you to leave school this instant."

"Nik-"

"And I don't need you to argue with me about this. I need you to be safe. Now leave school and come home. I will be there waiting for you."

He knows she wants to say so much more. He can imagine her standing there, her mouth open, more words ready to pour out. But she is quiet. She can hear it in his voice. Now is not the time to argue with him. She can protest all she likes – once she's home and he's there with her.

"Please, Caroline," he then adds in a much softer tone and that is what does it.

"Of course," she replies just as softly. "I'm leaving right now. I love you."

"I love you," he nods, relieved as he can hear the tapping of her heels from over the phone, hearing her walk. "What did Stefan say to you?" He asks.

"Not much. He seemed just as surprised to see me in high school as I was to see him."

"What did you tell him?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing about Elena or Bonnie or-"

"Nothing, Klaus," Caroline repeats herself, more firmly.

He nods again. "Good girl. I'll see you soon."

"And you _will_ explain everything to me," she orders him.

"Everything," he promises. He pulls the phone from his ear and ends the call. He then looks back to Katherine. "You're coming with me. I am not letting you out of my sight." He grabs her arm and pulls her roughly to her feet. I might have use for you after all."

He drags her from the cave, she stumbling next to him, and he sees the surprise in Elijah's eyes when he sees them both. Katherine is no longer supposed to be alive.

"We're leaving," Klaus tells both Elijah and Scarlett. "I know which vampire should be used for part of the ritual."

…

* * *

><p>Caroline has no idea what's going on but whenever Klaus uses that tone with her – that soft, gentle tone and adds the word <em>please<em> to his sentences – she knows that it shouldn't be questioned. He needs her to go home – to the house they have on the edge of town – and she is going to go there now without hesitation. She just has to get off school grounds first before she speeds away. She can't run the risk of anyone seeing her.

The grounds are crowded with students – some on their lunch period, others going to their next class – and she feels the pulsating of their blood in their veins and she nearly licks her lips. So many options. So many silly teenagers all ripe for the picking. None of them know what she is and even if they did, they probably wouldn't believe. Vampires belong in the world of fiction. They don't exist. This is what they tell themselves. Even as she feasts on their necks, they aren't able to grasp that it is truly happening to them.

She doesn't stop to eat. Not even snack. She and Klaus will go hunting later.

As soon as she steps into the woods that surround the school, she takes off, rushing away in a blur of motion and she arrives at the house within minutes.

Klaus is waiting on the front porch for her and the instant he sees her, he grabs her and pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her. She is stunned for a moment, still having no idea what's going on, but she lifts her arms and wraps them around him, embracing him. He holds her, crushing her to him, not letting her go and he murmurs something in her hair. She closes her eyes and his lips brush against her temple.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he whispers.

"Nik, what's going on?" Caroline asks, pulling her head back in order to look up at him.

He is quiet and he lifts his hands, framing her face, returning her gaze into her eyes. "It seems that there are some in this town that wish to declare war on us."

She looks at him and his eyes are dark and serious and she feels the tenseness of his body in her arms. This has to do with the ritual in a few nights. He has been waiting for this night for so long. Everything in his world has revolved around this. Everything comes second to this and the doppelganger. _Everything_. And she loves him so much, she will do anything for him. She will do anything to make sure that this ritual takes place for him.

She does her best to smile. "I so do enjoy a good bloodshed."

His hands are still on her cheeks, his thumbs caressing her skin. "I'm afraid not this time, love. I need you to leave Mystic Falls and not return. I need you to leave me behind."

…

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I absolutely love writing this story and I hope you love reading it. If you do, please comment! Thank you very much to those who do :)**


	7. Chapter 7

…

The air is smoky from the several hearths with fires blazing and someone is playing a guitar to the boisterous delight of a few drunken patrons. The tavern is crowded that night to escape the sudden and unexpected rain falling outside and he stands at the bar, so much blood and beating hearts surrounding him. She stands next to him, sipping on her cup of ale that he has bought for her. She has never tried it before and he can't help but smile as her nose wrinkles up at the slightly bitter flavor that runs over her tongue.

"People willingly drink this?" She asks.

He is still smiling and he nods. "Some love it a bit too much."

She makes another face but brings the cup to her lips again for a sip. She doesn't need to drink it. It does absolutely nothing for her. It doesn't help with her thirst or hunger.

She was turned two weeks ago. Two weeks since Klaus found her, confused and disoriented and starving in the woods. Two weeks since he explained to her what she was now and she still didn't quite understand but in those two weeks, she had seen him hunt and kill and he had allowed her to feast and drink the blood first and get her fill first before he helped himself.

The first time, her brain had yelled at her to stop. This man had just killed a person and now was telling her to drink the blood. This was a nightmare and she would wake up and she had to be crazy to even be thinking of doing such a thing. But she had been so hungry and she licked her lips and a small voice in her mind told her that this was wrong but it couldn't stop her from eating.

Now, it is her turn, he told her as they walked through the small town and found the tavern. The tavern is the easiest place to begin, he says. Too many people and almost all of them drunk and unaware of things around them. No one misses a drunkard for a few hours, he tells her, and by then, they will be long gone from this town and no one will remember seeing them. There are always travelers passing in and out of taverns like this and even if they are remembered, how can anyone suspect the beautiful blonde woman?

She is gorgeous. Klaus can't help but look at her as he has been doing since finding her. He has seen many centuries now but there is something about this girl. She had been just seventeen when she had died and been turned and now, she will be seventeen forever and there is definitely an innocence to her that comes with living for not even two decades.

But there is something else.

There must be if he has shown such a devotion to her already. There is something beyond her beauty. There is something about her that makes him want to take her and protect her and show her the world and how to live and survive with her new self. A newly changed vampire is like a newborn. They have no idea how to do things and whoever had changed her had left her in the woods, alone and to fend for herself.

That was two weeks ago though and now, Klaus, infamous hybrid amongst them all, has taken her and he has hardly left her side since. He's not sure if he will leave her or not.

"Caroline," he says her name, quietly and yet through all of the noise, she hears him perfectly and she looks at him, placing her cup down. "There is a man who seems to be quite interested in you. Over your shoulder, by the door that leads to the alley."

Caroline is still accustoming herself to no longer being a human – to being alive – and she swears she feels her heart pounding in her chest. Slowly, she turns her head and glances over her shoulder to the man. He is tall and young – maybe near her age. Perhaps three weeks ago, if he had made eye contact with her on the street, she would have blushed.

He sees her looking and he smiles at her. She remembers what Klaus has told her about putting up a friendly front and she smiles in return before coyly turning her head away.

Klaus smiles at her performance. "Take him out back to the alley."

Her eyes widen at him. "That is not proper!" She hisses to him.

He laughs and shakes his head at her. "Not proper for who?" He lifts her wrist and holds two fingers to her pulse point. "There's nothing there," he reminds her gently. She lowers her eyes to look at his fingers and her wrist. "We don't live in their world anymore, Caroline. We're above it. Everyone here, they are here for us."

She swallows and nods but she doesn't know how to respond.

"Take him to the alley. I will meet you there," he promises. Caroline lifts her eyes and he has moved in a step closer, staring at her. "You can have anyone in here that you want. Any man would follow you anywhere you led them."

"In the alley, I won't know what to do," she whispers.

"I'll be out there. I'll show you. I won't leave you alone," he says.

"Promise," she says and his fingers slowly encircle around her wrist.

"I promise you. I won't leave you."

Their eyes are intensely locked together and she wants to step forward and hug him. She has so much to hug him for and she doesn't know if she will be able to say thank you and have him understand just how much it is for.

"That wouldn't be wise, love," he takes a step back, as if reading her mind, smiling still but shaking his head. "You don't want him to get the wrong idea, do you? He'll leave and you're still hungry."

She doesn't blush anymore but her memory still remembers how it feels. She smiles and shyly lowers her eyes. In her life before, she hadn't had that much interaction with men. She had born to a wealthy family and her parents had given her the finest tutors and she had been to the most glamorous balls and parties and there had been men who had spoken to her father but he had been waiting for the "right" one – whoever owned the most money or land or had the right family.

She was never permitted to be alone with a man and had never been inside of a tavern and though Klaus was endlessly polite and got them two rooms whenever they stayed somewhere. But to have a man as her constant companion, to always be with him, she is still learning quite just how to function with this arrangement.

She exhales a deep breath and nods but she feels knots in her stomach.

"What if I do something wrong?" She asks.

"You're a natural," he tells her. "I know already. You'll be perfect."

He smiles at her and she gives him a small smile in return before turning away from him. She locks eyes with the man, still leaning against the wall, and she takes her first hesitant step towards him.

She's not a lady anymore. Not the lady she was born to be. She has to remember that every day, it seems. She's not sure who she is but right now, she's Caroline and Caroline approaches men in taverns and invite them into alleyways.

…

* * *

><p>The rain has stopped – at least for a brief interval.<p>

He waits for her in the darkness, next to a stack of crates. There are rotten vegetables and human – as well as animal – piss in the air, mixed in with the smell of alcohol from the tavern. A man and women enter the alley hoping for an up against the wall quickie but one look from Klaus in the shadows and they hurry away to find another place.

He leans against the wall and watches the door opposite, waiting and trying to remain patient and not worry himself. If Caroline is in trouble, he will hear and know instantly.

She could do this. He has complete faith in her that she can do this.

The door suddenly swings open and he takes a step to the side, hiding himself further into the shadows though the man is looking at nothing but Caroline to notice anything else. Klaus doesn't exactly blame him.

"You are so beautiful," the man is telling her and he lifts his hands to frame Caroline's face.

"I bet you say that to all of them women you bring back here," Caroline smiles. She makes a show of looking around; looking nervous. "Will anyone see us?"

The man shakes his head. "It's just you and me."

Caroline lifts a hand to his face, her fingers touching his lips. "You and me."

She slowly turns them around so she is guiding him back against the brick wall.

Klaus finally steps forward and the man sees him for the first time, his eyes widening.

"Are you going to rob me?" The man asks, looking to Klaus and then to Caroline before back to Klaus again.

Klaus allows a cold smile to pass over his lips. "Not quite." He looks to Caroline and his hand rests on the small of her back. "Caroline, look into his eyes. Look at nothing but into his eyes. Focus on nothing but him and his eyes."

Caroline nods, still feeling so nervous. She puts herself directly in front of him and just as Klaus instructed, she looks into the man's eyes. She has seen Klaus do this to others. He calls it compelling. She's not sure what she's doing but she just tries to concentrate and stare into the man's eyes. The man tries to look away but he can't. He looks directly into her eyes as she stares into and holds his.

There is almost a flash that suddenly occurs in his eyes and a cloud seems to sweep in as if a storm is moving in from sea. His eyes dilate and dull and she almost gasps.

"Good girl," Klaus speaks softly next to her. "He is under your control now. Give me your hand," he then orders.

Caroline can't look away from the man. She can't make herself draw her eyes away but she lifts her hand and Klaus takes it. He guides the tips of her fingers to the side of his throat.

"Do you feel that?" He asks.

The pulsing vein, the pumping blood. Caroline nods, her entire body nearly beginning to shake with the hunger and want at the idea of what was beneath this thin covering of skin.

"He's for you, Caroline," he says in a quiet voice.

She finally turns her head away from the man's eyes to look at Klaus.

"The whole world is for you now," his other hand lifts to brush fingers across her cheek. "There are things out there you haven't even dreamt of seeing."

She stares at him now and she isn't sure what to do. She feels an urge to kiss him but she wouldn't dare. It's not proper for a woman to kiss a man first. She doesn't care if she's not even technically alive with a beating heart anymore. There are some things she was raised with that she can't just forget – especially not just in two weeks.

The man must make the first move.

And Klaus doesn't at all seem interested in making any sort of move with her. He has taken her under his protection. He has been kind to her, showing her how to feed and to survive, but she can tell already that he looks to her as a teacher looks to his pupil. She is so naïve and almost childlike when it comes to men and needs so much more interaction with them before she starts drawing conclusions about them.

The man who had come into the alley with her, she had just given him a smile and a soft "hello, sir" and he had boldly taken her hand and started to speak with her minutes before inviting her to the alley with him for a "quickie". She isn't quite sure what that is.

"Will you show me the world?" She asks.

Klaus instantly smiles. "Anywhere you want to go."

"Can we leave Virginia?"

He nods and smiles. "As soon as you're full."

She looks back to the man, her fingers still on the side of his throat, his eyes still clouded and pupils still dilated. He seems to almost be waiting for her.

Caroline takes a step closer to him. She can smell his blood and her hunger is giving her pangs low in her stomach now. She feels her fangs extract – it still makes her jump slightly initially – and her eyes turn black, making the world around her go black and white. The veins in this man are now black and pumping and she is so hungry.

"Feed, Caroline," Klaus says in a low voice and she glances over to see that his fangs are out as well and his eyes are black like hers. He will feed once she's had her fill.

She moves so fast, a normal human wouldn't be able to see clearly. Her fangs sink into the fragile skin, puncturing it, and the man lets out a low groan as Caroline feels the blood pour into her mouth.

Klaus watches her and he feels something of pride in his chest. He has taught her. She has never compelled or taken the first feed and she is doing so well.

He knew.

The first time he saw her in the woods, he knew.

She is different and special and he is going to keep her with him for some time.

She is drinking so much of the blood, the man begins to slide down the wall but Caroline follows him, never removing her fangs. He is past the point now. He is going to die. There will be no pulling away now and leaving him alive.

Klaus feeds and he never leaves anyone alive and it seems as if Caroline will be the same.

Finally, the pain in her stomach stops and she has drank her full and she carefully pulls her fangs from the vein. She is now kneeling on the wet ground, getting mud on her dress, and the man's eyes have rolled into the back of his head. The blood is no longer pumping and his heart has stopped.

She has killed him.

She stares down at the man, now nothing more than a body, and her fangs slowly slide back and the blackness fades and her eyes return to normal, bringing color back to the world. She waits for the guilt. She has just killed a man and she waits for her conscious to attack her and drive her away from that alley, screaming and crying for what she had done.

But instead, Klaus crouches down next to her.

"You've made a mess, love," he wipes the blood from her chin away with his thumb.

And she giggles.

He smiles and then within a second, he has bent down over the body and he is feeding, drinking his share. Caroline watches him, licking at the corners of her mouth and wiping at her chin and when Klaus is done and he lifts his head, he hasn't spilt a drop anywhere.

"You must show me how to do that," she informs him.

He smiles, standing up again. "Practice makes perfect."

He holds out his hand for her and she takes it, him easily pulling her back up to her feet. Thunder rumbles in the distance and it smells like dirt and water and fresh earth in the air. The next round of rain is fast approaching.

Klaus takes her hand and he casually leads her out of the alley, not sparing the body a second glance. Caroline walks with him, holding her skirts up with her other hand.

"How do you feel?" He asks.

She is beaming. "I feel amazing. I've never felt like this before." She stops walking, making him stop as well, and she bolding takes his hand and brings it to her chest over her heart. "I swear to you, it's beating."

He smiles, almost laughing. "Human blood makes you feel alive," he agrees. He takes her other hand with his and presses it to his own chest over his heart. "It is a rush. It almost makes me remember what it's like to be human."

"And it feels like this every time?" She asks.

Propriety tells her that she shouldn't be standing on a dark street with her hand on a man's chest and this man's hand on hers but what is propriety? She almost wants to laugh for even thinking of it now as a man's body lies dead in an alleyway because of her.

He nods. "It can or you might get used to it and it will be just like when you were human after eating food. You feel full and satisfied until you're hungry again." He looks into her eyes and even in the low gaslight of the street lamp they stand under, he can see her eyes nearly sparkling.

She's beautiful and his fingers suddenly inch to get back to their room back at the inn so he can sketch her face in this very moment.

"You never forget your first," he whispers and she smiles now shyly.

Her hand slowly drops from his chest and he removes his from hers. "Thank you," she looks up to him through eyelashes. "For everything. I know the words aren't enough-"

"They are more than enough," he interrupts gently.

He picks up her hand and kisses her knuckles.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks as they begin walking down the street again in the direction of the inn they are staying at. Just for tonight though. Tomorrow, they will leave.

Caroline is quiet for a moment and she suddenly remembers the atlas her father used to have in their library. It used to be her favorite book in their entire household.

"Paris," she then bursts into a smile, excited at just saying it. "Can we go to Paris?"

Klaus smiles and it's his turn to stop walking. They are crossing over the bridge in the town and a small river flows beneath them. Klaus stands behind her and turns her towards the railing of the bridge. She looks down at the rushing water, black in the night, and he brings his face next to hers. She isn't cold but she nearly shivers as his chest presses to her back.

"Look out there, Caroline," he whispers in her ear. "Do you know where this river flows?"

"The ocean?" She answers almost unsurely.

He smiles. "The ocean," he nods. "And out there, the entire world is waiting for you. We can and we will go anywhere you want to go. We will see the world."

She closes her eyes, feeling the soft breeze on her face and his lips right to her ear and her body feels as if it is humming.

She can't remember being a human and being this happy.

…


End file.
